Swiss churches share their challenges and successes with global Reformed church officials

["Daphne Martin_Gnanadason" <Daphne.Martin_Gnanadason@wcrc.ch>]

World Communion of Reformed Churches  

News Feature
13 May 2011
 
Swiss churches share their challenges and successes with global
Reformed church officials
 
A visit by representatives of Swiss regional churches to
governing board members of the World Communion of Reformed
Churches (WCRC) has opened new perspectives on the challenges for
Christians in a secular, prosperous country in Europe. 
 
“The number of Reformed Christians in Switzerland is declining,”
Federation President, Gottfried Locher told the gathering. “At
the same time, the number of people who declare they have no
faith or who belong to other faith traditions is growing.”
 
In a presentation Wednesday at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva,
Switzerland, church leaders from regional (or Cantonal) churches
belonging to the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches welcomed
WCRC’s Executive Committee to Switzerland and shared stories of
church programmes in several areas of the country.
 
The session was designed to give the 36 members, advisors,
consultants and staff participating in the WCRC meeting an
overview of the context in which Reformed church Christians live
and work. The WCRC executive group includes people from 20
countries.
 
Locher, who also serves as WCRC’s General Treasurer, noted that
33% of the Swiss population is Protestant, 41% Roman Catholic,
4.3% Muslim, 0.2% Jewish and 11% claim no religious affiliation.

 
Andreas Zeller, president of the regional church council serving
the area around the Swiss capital Bern, told the group, “The
question for pastors in many parts of Switzerland today is what
will attract people to churches?”
Churches in Zeller’s area are responding with diaconal and
educational programmes. 
“In our work with children and teenagers, we are fostering the
general human right to education,” Zeller told the group.  “One
important focus is on working with mentally challenged children
and teenagers. We are building bridges so that they may
participate in the life of the religious community as equals.”
 
Gabriel Bader, a pastor and president of the church council in
Neuchâtel, in the western region of the country, engaged the
attention of the WCRC Executive Committee with a presentation of
ad campaigns designed to make the church visible in secular
society.
 
The church in Neuchâtel has been experiencing a decline in
active members. In an effort to promote what the church has to
offer secular society, it has created a series of public
relations campaigns over the past few years.
 
“The entire population needs to know and remember that the
church is at work for them,” says Bader. “We are labouring to
maintain spiritual support in prisons, schools and hospitals. It
is important that the church gets talked about everywhere.”
 
The church campaigns have featured signs on the back of buses
promoting “green spirituality”; road signs about declining
values; and ads replacing pastors with robots at hospital
bedsides.
 
Results are hard to measure directly, says Bader. But there is a
noticeable decline in church activity in the years between
campaigns.
 
In a tribute to the impact of WCRC on the lives of Swiss
Christians, Claudia Bandixen of Aargau in the German-speaking
eastern region of the country, pointed to the Executive Secretary
of WCRC’s Gender Justice Programme. 
 
“From the beginning of our research about our tradition of
female leadership, Patricia Sheerattan- Bisnauth became very
important to all of us. She encouraged us, she helped us with her
knowledge,” Bandixen said.
 
Sheerattan-Bisnauth, who is leaving WCRC following 11 years
working on gender, economic and environmental issues, worked with
Bandixen to identify winners of the biennial Sylvia Michel Award
offered to women from around the world who prepare women for
leadership in church and society. The award was created in honour
of Europe’s first female church president who was elected to the
senior post of the Cantonal Church of Aargau in 1980.
 
In remarks following the presentation, Locher echoed Bandixen’s
assessment of the importance of WCRC for Swiss Christians.
 
“You are our window on the world,” Locher said during a
reception for the WCRC hosted by the Federation. “We are a small
country and at risk of focusing on ourselves. Through WCRC, we
are connected to churches around the world. It opens us up to
what is happening outside Switzerland.”
 
WCRC was created in June 2010 through a merger of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical
Council (REC). Its 230 member churches representing 80 million
Christians are active worldwide in initiatives supporting
economic, climate and gender justice, mission, and cooperation
among Christians of different traditions. 
 
Media Contacts: 
Kristine Greenaway
Office of Communications
Email: kgr@wcrc.ch
tel: +41 (0)22 791 62 43;
fax: +41 (0)22 791 65 05
www.wcrc.ch ( http://www.wcrc.ch/ )